24/04/2013 Newsnight

Good evening, public health experts have decided that the outbreak of

measles in Wales won't be contained there. Plans to vaccinate the

unprotected are now expected across England. Can sufficient numbers be

reached before the illness infects the vulnerable. It is probably of

the order of a million to two million children who haven't had

two doses of MMR vaccine which what is what you need for almost total

protection. How do you persuade people who rejected advice at the

time that they need to listen now. We all hoped he knew what he was

doing, when so many are saying that George Osborne doesn't and he's

making matters worse, should we listen to them? We will speak with

the Nobel Prize winner, Joseph Spiglett. Put your eyes up and you

have lines, this gets rid of them and prevents. Why shouldn't any Tom

Dick or Harriet be able to inject whatever they like into the faces

of those who think they need it. We will discuss why cosmetic surgery

is so popular and so easy to get. The former MP, Louise Mensch, will

speak to us about why she has had treatment. Maybe the worst won't

happen, but the Department of Health is preparing for it. A

stockpile of vaccines has been gathered to offer protection

against measles and a plan to vaccinate the vulnerable is being

prepared against the moment when an outbreak in Swansea spreads.

Experts have told Newsnight that the infection is likely to be

carried across Britain. In England alone around a million children are

thought to be unprotected. The NHS in Scotland said they will contact

the vulnerable there. The disgraced doctor who caused the public health

scare by encouraging parents not to get their children vaccinates is

nowhere to be seen. But the damage is done, and now the challenge is

to persuade people to do what they wrongly judged a few years ago to

be dangerous for their children's health. In Wales this week

secondary schools have started a catch-up campaign for teenagers to

help contain the spread of measles. Almost 900 people have been

infected in the Swansea outbreak, with 80 needing hospital treatment

and one suspected death. In neighbouring Port Talbot teachers

and pupils are coming forward. There has been a large outbreak in

the nearby area, to be safe I thought I would get it. Figures

here in Wales show it is the 10-14 age group that has the highest

number of suspected cases of measles, which is why officials are

so keen for this group to come forward for immunisation at catch-

up clinics like this. Teenagers who didn't have the MMR vak zone when

they were younger are proving most at risk. The catch-up campaign is

not just to protect them, but vulnerable groups in the community,

such as very young babies who have not yet been immunised, people with

compromised immune systems, such as cancer patients. Yesterday the

Government confirmed it has enough vaccine to cover those not yet

protected. I want to reassure you we are taking this extremely

seriously inside the Department of Health. We absolutely do want to

make sure we do everything we can. If you are talking about a national

plan, yes, making sure that we have sufficient numbers of vaccines,

making sure that we are talking in a targeted way to communities and

to schools, that is something that is absolutely going on. Experts

have told Newsnight England and especially London cannot be

complacent. The country as a whole is probably in the order of one

million to two million children who haven't had two doses of MMR

vaccine, which you need for total protection. London is a particular

problem, there was lower uptake ten years ago. There will be pockets of

very large pockets of susceptible children. The Government is

preparing the nation to head off further outbreaks of measles, like

the one we are seeing in Swansea. Public Health England will be

responsible for making sure that runs smoothly. There is plenty of

logistics to sort out, and perhaps their biggest challenge will be to

change the mind set of some people about the vaccine itself.

Experts trace the rise in cases to a fall in uptake of the MMR vaccine

after a paper, published in 1998 in the medical journal the Lancet.

This paper by Andrew Wakefield promptedst suggestions of a link

between measles vaccine and bowel disease and autism, and concerns

about the MMR jab. That has since been discredited. Population

studies have found no link them. And the vaccine's benefits outweigh

any risk. Before the current outbreak in Swansea vaccine uptake

in two-year-olds was good at 95%, in older children there were 70,000

youngsters across Wales who still needed the vaccine. Attention is

now turning to areas of England at risk. London is of particular

concern. Average uptake of the two doses of MMR across England is at

86%. In parts of London it is much lower. Some former Primary Care

Trusts, such as Lewisham, Camden, City and Hackney and Southwark were

at the 70% mark last year. What I have discovered is it is very hard,

it is a challenge to change beliefs. To get away the mind set that the

MMR might not be safe. To engage parents again who actually had a

different view of it when their children were little. The younger

parpbts don't have that fear. -- parents don't have that fee, we can

see that, because the uptake is 90% and00% in the Swansea area. They

are not worried about it but the older parents are. We have to

change the belief and recognise that the MMR is safe. This former

Welsh rugby prop forward, now a PE teacher, knows firsthand about the

potential impact of measles. When I was younger I had measles in

primary school, and I went deaf through it in my right ear. Now

working in the school environment it was advised to have the

injection just to better be safe than sorry and not having constant

contact with the children. Harvey had the single measles

vaccination as a toddler, because her mother was concerned after The

Awakening paper, now she has changed her mind. When Amy was

little we decided to pay for the single measles vaccination because

of the scare around autism at the time. We have decided to go for the

MMR now because there were some concerns about how the single

measles vaccination was kept. So to make sure that she is covered for

measles we wanted to have the MMR But the BBC's Week In Week Out has

been investigating clinics in Wales and elsewhere selling single

measles vaccines, which they claim are safer. Officials are reminding

parents that their strong view is the combined MMR vaccine is the

safest option. Chloe is here for the second MMR? GPs in Wales are

helping with the catch-up too, here in Caerphilly, 40 miles east of

Swansea people travel into the city to work. People do nowadays think

of measles as one of those childhood viral illnesses that will

pass quickly. I think we have to remember that measles is a killer

and it is only in recent years with vaccination and MMR that we are

avoiding childhood deaths. Do you think it almost take as situation

like this to raise people's awareness? I think we almost had to

get to where we are at for all of us, for parents, for schools, for

health services to kind of think you know there is a wrong here that

needs to be addressed. There is a population of children who are

moving through our schools and some how, despite all the work, they are

still not protected against measles, mumps and rubella. And we have an

opportunity now to protect them in school for life. Past measles

campaigns have tried to reach out to target groups. Today's challenge

is to reach a generation of teenagers and their parents,

especially those who may still be harbouring lingering doubts.

We have a Trinity of doctors here to discuss some of those issues, Dr

Helen Bedford, an expert in childhood immunisation, we have a

GP and chair of the council of the Royal College of GPs, and a

physician, academic and science writer. How much of a danger is

this objectively? I think it is potentially a big danger. There is

a large, very large group of susceptible children. These are

children who are entering their teens who weren't immunised when

toddlers, ten years ago. If it is a serious danger, the key group you

have to convince that they should do something are the very people

who decided they shouldn't do something when these young people,

teenagers, were infants. How do you do that? The first thing, I think,

we say it is a great shame isn't it that we nearly eradicated measles

at the end of the 90s and here we are on the cusp yet again of an

increase in cases. I think the people that didn't have it then,

the parents clearly now, hopeful low, will be seeing that there is

no evidence at all that MMR is dangerous. MMR is safe and MMR

protects your children against measles, mumps and rubella.

Hopefully they will be conadvised. The good thing is we know who --

convinced. The good thing is we know who those children are, we

have an electronic record and we can do a catch-up programme in

Wales. It is not just about persuading the young person but the

parents that it is a very, very safe and effective and as hisen

said, measles is a nasty De-- Helen has said, measles is a nasty

Disease, and if it doesn't kill you great, but it is a nasty Disease

and leaves you very unwell. What experience should we draw from

this? It is always very difficult to fix these problems after they

have happened. With a healthcare they are like toothpaste once they

are out it is hard to get the toothpaste back in the tube. We

have learned firstly that Public Health and the professions have to

be better at challenging misinformation from the media and

also mischievous doctors, in the case of Andrew Wakefield and his

research. I think to an extend we have learned those lessons, if you

go to the NHS website and look at the news which checks the real

story behind media reports of medicine. We have science helping

to grow the reputation within newsrooms so they feel empowered to

shut bad stories down. That doesn't make you popular, because you want

to be the person with the exciting story rather than the person who

shuts it down. We have to think about how to stop scares going in

the future as well as making amends in the current one. Do you think

there is a crisis of confidence in doctors, along with many other

institutions in society that you are not trusted as much? I think

individual parents trust their individual GP. That is evidenced by

the fact that 93% of two-year-olds are immunised he against MMR.

aren't? Some of those will be simply because they have poor

access to services. Some may well be abroad. Ever since I have been a

GP there are always people who will never get their children immunised

T usually runs at 5%. People do trust their GPs, it is important

that we continue with that trust and that we are honest to our

patients and talk to them about the risks of not doing something.

a degree of scepticism justified though. When you look at the sort

of health scares we have lived through in the last 10-15 years,

bird flu, Sars. I'm not sure they were health scares, they were

dreadful times when you didn't know where it was going to end. We have

lived through health scares, we have lived through mumps and

electric lightbulbs and everything else. The doctors cried wolf?I

think with bird flu and with Sars they certainly didn't cry wolf. We

only knew in retrospect that bad things didn't happen. That is

because the Department of Health and the Government took action very

promptly. It is actually I think unfair to say we cried wolf. I

think there are every Friday, in the news there is the healthcare.

At the moment we have alcohol in pregnancy, is it or isn't it. All

the time we have this. But the authorities, I recall is it

something like 15 million doses of bird flu vaccine. It was just a

huge reaction to a, what turned out to be a non-event? It is easy to

say that in retrospect. I think it is likely we dodged a bullet. I

think it is the other way round, the Public Health community has

been reluctant to use scare tactics to get people to have their

children vaccinated. That is the right way to play it, I think. They

are fighting against an anti- vaccination community around since

the dawn of time. They are using scare tactics now, saying get the

MMR vaccine because measles is a horrible illness? That is quite

right, measles is very nasty. Part of the problem is when this scare

erupted we had forgotten about measles. We hadn't had measles for

decades, it was well controlled. This outbreak in Swansea is a stark

reminder of just how serious the disease is. If Claire is right, did

you say 5% always? Always.How do you get to the people who have not

had the shot? We need to make services accessible so people can

get to them. We need to remind parents, because a lot of it is

just the parents forget, they need to go and get the vaccine. For

parents that are really, truly worried what they need is to have a

discussion with a health adviser who can set their concerns and

allay their fears. Why doesn't the country make it compulsory to have

certain vaccinations? Because we do very well without. Not well enough?

We do extremely well, we have very high rates. If we had compulsion

ten years ago, the resistant parents would have become more

resistant. That wouldn't have been the answer at all. You create

martyrs. You create martyrsThere There have been resistant people

since the 1800s. There have always been stupid people about? We are

still reaching 80%, to force parents would backfire. We have to

use reason and the discussion with people they trust. And we have to

use campaigns such as the one we have at the moment. Either it is a

serious menace or it is not, if it is, why not make immunisation

compulsory? If it is a serious menace the media could reflect on

their part they have played on it. The constant campaigns that are

being run around MMR, certainly not in the last two years, but before

that, maybe it is a question of all of us reflecting on this.

Absolutely, there are many of us in the media who are deeply

embarrassed about what some newspapers and others did in this

particular issue. But that has nothing to do with the question of

the law? I don't know whether Helen will point out that it is nothing

to do with the law, the fact is we managed to achieve, in some places

we still do. 100% immunisation rates. We can continue to do that.

We don't need to force people to get their children immunised.

happens if this new campaign doesn't work? I think what we have

to do is talk to parents who may have lingering doubt, one-to-one,

that does work from my own experience and backed by research,

that parents who in the past have rejected the vaccine actually do

change their mind if they have reassurance from somebody they

trust. It is an easier job than ten years a the peak of the scare has

passed. People are more ameanable to persuasion. We have to remember

that vaccine scares come in cycles. The French have a scare about

hepatitis B vaccine causing multiple sclerosis that doesn't

leave the borders of France. We have our scare about MMR, in

Nigeria there is a scare about polio and infertility. We will have

future scares so we need to plan for the future. It is very

interesting that they are specific to different cultures? Undoubtedly.

They respect cultural boundaries because they are social, cultural

and political boundaries. Still to come, why do so many

people want cosmetic surgery, we ask Louise Mensch and others about

their experiences. If George Osborne hasn't at least

poured himself a stiff whiskey tonight and got his hands on decent

sleeping pills, then he must know something the rest of us don't know,

tomorrow morning will come yet another verdict on how he's

managing the economy. If it is anything like the last couple it

will be miserable. It might even show we are back in recession again.

Not only have we lost the triple-A status George Osborne used to boast

about, even his friends in the International Monetary Fund think

he should lay off the austerity. At a foodbank in Salisbury today is

a milestone, the number reliant on these places has tripled, in a year.

They don't just give out food, but advice, and these are becoming

places for the working poor. They know what it is like to have a job,

get sick and find that sick pay is not enough.

Very hard, it is not something that I'm used to. I normally have money

in the pocket, at the moment we don't have any. Hopefully, now I'm

back at work it is fine. If it wasn't for the foodbank, we

wouldn't have eaten over the last couple of weeks. It is just another

day on the economic crisis, tomorrow won't be, tomorrow George

Osborne finds out if he's escaped a triple-dip recession. Even if he

does growth is slow and the deficit falling slower than intended. He

has lost the triple-A rating, even now the IMF are telling him to ease

up on Austerty. Those who told him austerity wouldn't work are feeling,

well, right. Some of the weakness of UK growth is down to the UK

Government policy S some of it isn't. The fact that real wages are

being squeezed, very high inflation, next to no pay growth, that is a

very important factor keeping the UK economy subdued. Over and above

that you have the UK Government tightening fiscal policy, trying to

get the borrowing totals down. And at the time of a flat economy that

tends not to succeed. What you are seeing is borrowing staying at the

same levels, as the grip tightens on people's finances they spend

less. We are learning to recognise what stagnant economy looks like.

In Wiltshire the signs are there, shops closed, old stores prettyfied

with council hoardings. Stall holders struggling to stay afloat.

You have a few good days and the rest are bad, before it was the odd

bad day and lot of good days. It is reversed. People that buy dolls'

house furniture are enthusiasts. It is their way of I suppose hiding

away from reality. It is a fantasy world. So you know some of them are

quite happy to spend money doing that rather than buying essentials.

But for policy makers there is no hiding from reality, and where it

is starkest is in the banks. One of the most telling clues is this. The

graph of bank lending to businesses. Since 2009 it has been negative,

falling �4 billion a month back then, and falling in every year the

coalition has been in office, the banks withdrew �2.8 billion of

lending to businesses in February this year alone. In Salisbury

businesses are putting a brave face on it. This event today designed to

accentuate the positive, amid a credit drought not experienced in a

lifetime. The banks aren't very helpful with small business, I'm

afraid. A loans agreed terms take so much time to put in place you

need to find other ways of securing finance. I have remortgaged

properties et cetera to release cashflow to get me through the

difficult times. It would clearly be helpful for all the chambers of

commerce and other organisations to have a brief from Government saying

this is what we would like you guys to do. This is what's round the

corner, it is a danger it is made up on the hoof as we go along. It

would be brilliant to know the strategy and we could buy into it.

It is trying to do austerity when the banks are busted that the

critics warned about. The crisis with regards to the banking system

is absolutely profound. And nobody should underestimate the

difficulties the Government faces in trying to overcome this problem.

Having said that, they have not been as radical as they might have

been with regards to tackling the banking problem. If you really

think that an essential difficulty here is the broken banking system

then I would have imagined they would adopt radical measure.

truth is there is a global retreat from austerity going on, in Europe

the economy isle cooling faster than expected. The appetite for

cuts has diminished there. Even the academic case for austerity took a

knock this month when a famous study was debunked. So the pressure

on George Osborne is rising. The Chancellor has a plan to flood the

housing market with cheaper loans and extend the Funding for Lending

Scheme, where the Bank of England underwrites bank lending to

businesses. If this plan fails, it is the free food economy that will

be forced to grow. At the Salisbury foodbank they have stock for way

into the future. Unless something changes they will need it.

Joining us now from the Columbia Business School is the Nobel Prize-

winning economist is Joseph Stiglett and my guest in the studio.

If you were advising George Osborne tomorrow morning, what would you

say to him? I would say to him that austerity has typically not worked.

The few instances in which austerity has worked or not been a

disaster have been instances where the hole in Government spending has

been filled by increased exports. But with the global slowdown, with

the weaknesses in Europe that will not happen. Clearly it wasn't going

to happen in 20009/0/11 after he started the programme. If economic

growth slows down, then the hope for benefits in terms of improved

fiscal position turns out to be disappointed. That is exactly what

we have seen. Let's bring in the studio. This is not a lone voice on

this. One is hearing this advice, even from people who used to

believe in what George Osborne was doing? Economists wouldn't be

economists if we didn't disagree. But we do have an example from

Britain where austerity worked. If you remember back in the early

1980s when there was a very deep recession. 364 economists called

upon the Government to reverse policy, the Government didn't, but

the economy recovered and it recovered strongly. Because the

essence of any successful economic recovery is not what the Government

does, it is what business does. It is about business confidence. It is

about psychology. This is what Cains wrote about, he talked about

spontaneous optimisim, animal spirits, this should be the prime

concern of a Government policy. What we have is spontaneous alarm

that the policy isn't working? Mainstream economists in my view

pay insufficient attention to psychology. We have to look at

economies in Europe where psychology has turned negative. We

look at Italy, Spain, Greece and business confidence has collapsed.

In fact there is a good reason why it collapsed. There is a widespread

understanding of the basic economics. As I said, you can find

instances where there were cutbacks in Government spending and the

economy didn't go into a tail spin, when and only when the gap is

picked up by experts. It is not going to happen now. I think the

business community is realistic, it understands what is going on. There

is not going to be any spontaneous burst of an animal spirit to get

you out of this. How much of a stimulus would the Chancellor of

the Exchequer have to apply to the economy and where exactly would he

find it? One of the points that you are discussing before I came on and

it emphasised, that what is going on right now in the UK and many the

other countries in Europe is not only a fiscal austerity but a

construction of the financial system with the banking system. It

is these two together which are really disastrous. One of the

things the Government ought to be doing is taking more active

measures to increase lending. It has the position and ability to do

that because it is the owner of some of the financial institutions.

That is to say it has a very large share in the ownership. Both in the

United States and the UK, and many other countries, Governments, even

when they were very active and providing money to the banking

system have been reluctant to exercise their role as owner.

know perfectly well they have been trying to do that for years now,

they haven't had much success? think the real risk of altering

policy is really on interest rates, how the markets judge this. George

Osborne has had bad news, but the good news is the British Government

can still borrow cheaply. Despite the fact it has lost its triple-A

record. Long-dated bonds issue by the British Government can still be

issued at around 2%. If there is a fiscal expansion and the markets

lose confidence then interest rates will rise to 4-5%, or up to 8%

which we have seen in some of the Mediterranean countries. That would

have a devastating impact on business confidence. I think Joe

would have to agree, we don't know the correct answer but there are

very real risks in abandoning this policy of restraint and austerity.

There is a fundamental difference between the Mediterranean countries,

where they joined the euro, they have lost control of their monetary

system, and the United States and the UK where they still control

their monetary system. The fact is in both the United States and the

UK monetary policy has been active and successful in keeping interest

rates down. Both the short-term and the long-term. They have the

ability to intervene and continue to intervene to keep interest rates

low. Do you think we worry too much about debt? Yes, I do. I don't

think you can completely ignore it, but I certainly think in the United

States markets have made it very clear that they are not worried. We

have inflation index bonds, we look at the difference between unindexed

bonds and indexed bonds. We can see with the market expectation of

inflation is very, very low. The United States in real terms is

borrowing at a negative rate. ask in the studio thoughts about

that? I think it is slightly irresponseable to say we shouldn't

worry about debt at all. There should be restrictions on what the

Government do. The whole financial crisis is about sectors getting far

too indebted. If I can mention America, the American economy has

indeed recovered, but there have been contractions in the public

sector. Since 2010 half a million public sector jobs have been cut in

America and the gap has been filled by the private sector. By response

tain us optimism. So it has -- spontaneous optimisim so it has

been with fiscal restraint. United States has very serious

unemployment and record low participation rate in the labour

force. Nobody looking at the American policy today would say we

are recovered. Thank you very much indeed. If you have ever aspired to

one of those pouting expressionless faces, favoured by reality

television performers and increasing numbers of news readers

help may be at hand, right now. Cosmetic surgery in Britain is

about as tightly regulated as a Millwall fan's temper. Even a news

right researcher is able to inject anything into anyone. After

suggestions today those in the business are more interested money

than medicine the Government proposes to regulate the activity.

As the law currently stands you could have a Botox party at your

house, invite me around and inject filler into my face, and presumably

do a terrible job of it. Whilst that would all be very bizarre, it

would be perfectly legal. Its that lack of regulation of the cosmetic

industry that has shocked the authors of this report. They are

worried that non-surgical pro procedures have become so every-day

that people doesn't understand the risks. For this they blame TV shows

such as The Only Way Is Essex. are going to a Botox party. What is

that? It is injections to paralyse the nerve so you can't frown.

would you want that? You don't get lines. So you are paralysed.

your eyebrows up, you have two lines, this gets rid of them and

prevents. So by now I should have probably four lines. Why, because

you have that done you don't have it? No because I can't move my head.

The producers of TOWIE say they never seek to glamorise plastic

surgery and have highlighted the dangers. Nevertheless there is

concern about the impact that celebrity culture could be having

on the young. The report quotes a survey carried out last year and in

that poll 41% of girls aged 7-10 and 62% of girls aged 11-16 said

they felt some pressure to look the way celebrities do. What is clear

is even when the economy is tanking this industry is booming. Brits

spent �2.3 billion on procedures like Botox and breast implants in

2010. In two years time they are expecting to spend �3.6 billion. So,

what this report is recommending is that the Government makes sure that

anyone carrying out cosmetic procedures is registered, qualified

and insured. They want products such as facial fillers to be

prescription-only, they want the remit of the parliamentary and

health ombudsman to be expanded so it covers private healthcare. Well

earlier today, in order to test just how easy it is to get hold of

facial fillers, we called several cosmetic surgeries and beauty

saloons across the country, all of them said we could make an

appointment immediately. For a consultation with a doctor or nurse

who could give us the fillers, and for as little as �175. We ask

should we seek advice from a GP first, several told us that wasn't

necessary. Dr Rosemary Leonard is a GP who sat on the Government

commission which produced today's recommendations. Kat Banyard is a

feminist author who has campaigned for an end to cosmetic surgery

advertising. Alicia Douvall is a former glamour model who spent more

than a million pound she said on at least 500 plastic surgery

procedures before realiseing she was addicted to the business and

taking herself off to rehab. And Louise Mensch is a former

Conservative MP who has also had plastic surgery and joining us

tonight from New York. Louise Mensch, what did you have done?

had had a little tighten in my face, I remember being asked about it by

the Guardian, and asking me had I had it because I had a scar under

my chin. I refused to answer it because people are always trying to

trivialise women's -- women in politics, but as I'm no longer a

politician and I want to support this report. Why did you do it?

was fully aware of the risks and reLuiz Eduardos and I knew what I

was doing. And when they asked had I had a face lift they ran pictures

pre-procedure and they couldn't tell the difference. It can be an

informed choice for many women. There are certainly great dangers,

I don't believe anybody who isn't a doctor or at the very least a nurse,

I would prefer a doctor, be able to carry out any of these procedure,

even the surgeons should have train anything that specific area.

still don't understand why you had it done? As I have said for

maintenance. I'm, I like the way I look, I would prefer to keep it

that way. I had a very, very good surgeon, the difference is subtle

if you get someone who knows what they are doing. I'm relatively

happy, I'm very happy with the results. Alicia Douvall you had an

awful lot of operations of one kind or another, why did you have them?

I started off when I was 17 when I had my first procedure. I was very

niave and believed that cosmetic surgery was the answer to changing

from an average-looking girl to this Barbie-looking appearance. I

didn't understand the limitations that surgery has. I wasn't informed,

I wasn't an intelligent lady that was able to do my research and

everything else. I unfortunately was in the hand of special offers

and the "cowboy" surgeries out there. Was price a factor in your

decision? Yes, after my first operation I had a special offer if

you booked more than one you got the second one cheaper.

Subsequently I had to have more surgery after that to correct it.

Do you, as a feminist are you troubled that so many women want

this sort of procedure? troubled that the cosmetic surgery

industry has been able to flourish unrestricted and unaccountable in

the way it has. The reasons we are talking about this is women and

girls from a very young age are subject to a highly sexist culture

that tells them their value lies in what they look like, not what they.

Do the cosmetic industry spent the last few decades spending millions

of pounds marketing itself as the solution to this. You don't think

that a successful, confident woman like Mensch MEPs, member of

parliament, is really that influenced by sexist assumptions in

society do you? There are various differences obviously between no

individual woman will have exactly the same experience and same

motivations. But we know that by the age of 10, a third of girls say

that the biggest worry is their body. And it is therefore no

surprise that the same proportion of girls would consider havings

could mtic surgery. This is an industry -- cosmetic surgery. This

is an industry that has spent millions telling people, by

spaceing adverts on public transport, in magazine -- placing

adverts in public transport and magazines that it is the solution

by going under the knife. Not changing the culture and tell women

they have to aspire to ideals. you feel under pressure? Not at all.

That isn't to say that I don't entirely agree with the thrust of

the report. I can't see you in the studio, it is disheartening to hear

the young lady, the model to say at 17 she felt pressurised to have

procedures again and again and again. We need this tightening up.

A respectable surgery will not offer a procedure to a woman who

has body image problems and has done it millions of times and

appears to be addicted. That is why I'm glad we have someone in the

health office who is a doctor and we need to look at this. There have

been problems, but also it had been a sovereign decision that a woman

makes about her own appearance. If informed it can be a good choice.

Here you are, let's be realistic about it, you are a highly

successful, highly intelligent woman who achieved power? Keep

going! And yet you choose to do this to your body. Are you worried

about what example you will set? Again the question arose because a

reporter at an ostensibly left-wing and feminist pap, in the middle of

a political profile depieded to ask me had I had something done to my

face which is entirely my own decision and not something I was

writing about. I think the publicity was thrust upon me, it

wasn't something I was forcing on anybody. The desire to look good is

not in of itself negative. But look good to whom? It doesn't all come

from plastic surgery. I find it interesting you focus so heavily on

the individual woman's motivations for getting cosmetic surgery, let's

be clear the lived experience from girls at an early age is their body

is held up as the post important thing about them. The ideals thrust

upon them through popular culture, through advertising are huge. And

body hatred among women is rampant. It is no surprise that so many

women want cosmetic surgery, the reason the review is important is

because it puts the spotlight on the industry for once, not on the

individual's choices. Were you shocked by what you found? Yes, the

pen you hold in your hand has the same controls as a cosmetic filler.

Interestingly in America where they are ahead of the game on us they

have made fillers prescription-only medicines. There are only a few

teens, 14, 15 available. In this country we have 190 available

because they are not subject to any more controls than floor cleaner.

filler is injected into you? It is injected into your face to plump it

up. When people say what's in them, the answer is at the moment is an

awful lot of things could be in them. Did you know what was being

put into your face? No not at all. I have countless amounts of filler.

I have had it also removed. I have got scaring from trying to get it

out. It is very difficult to remove it once it is in. They have told me

it is not permanent. How can you let somebody who is not medically

qualified stick something into your body? I trust a doctor and the

surgeon in front of me. He's telling me it will be dissolved

within six month it is great, it will be great for my face. This is

the story we have heard time and time again, the British public

assumed the industry is controlled. They assumed the practitioners know

what they are doing. Did you discover why it isn't controlled?

It is not my job to point the finger. It isn't helpful now, we

need to control it for now. It has to be said, in fairness to the

Government this is an industry that has exploded over the last few

years. It has gone up exponentially, probably ten years ago there wasn't

that much to control, there certainly is now. We need to get on

with it as quickly as possible. have to say I don't accept that

there simply hasn't been efforts to, or desire to control it, there have

been repeated calls for a clampdown on this exploitive industry which

have been batted away with assurances that the industry can

govern itself. It is brilliant that these recommendations have been

made. I will set up an open goal for you, do you think it was

regulated if it was a process that was seen applying mainly to men?

Interesting question, it is difficult to draw an exact on

collision from this, but it is an important point. Issues that mainly

affect women, it is no surprise that when we get more women in

parliament those kinds of issues are addressed. Issues such as body

image is left off the political agenda and it affects so many

women's lives. We are talking about this as if it is women only,

increase league there are more and more men who are going to the

cosmetic industry now. It is not just a feminine issue. It is across

the board. Louise Mensch surprising that you and fellow female MPs

didn't do anything about it? Well I think that you know when I was in

parliament the issue of the breast implants scandal came up, I'm very

glad the government is doing something about it now. My job

really was on the Culture, Media and Sport Commitee, perhaps if I

had been on the health committee I would have asked people to look at

it. It is great the Government is doing something about it. We can't

totally level the blame at the plastic surgery, when we talk about

body image, let's talk about Photoshop in magazines. Women are

held to an impossible ideal because they are constantly shown aim

imagines of women's bodies that are impossible to achieve, day in day

out by the fashion and beauty industry. I think that Photoshop,

which some women MPs have been campaigning against, and air

brushed pictures contribute to the problem that many young women have.

We looked at advertising very, very careful on the committee. One of

the things that was alarming was some of the adverts of before and

after, they are clearly not the same person. This is for cosmetic

surgery? Before and after is clearly not the same person. The

Advertising Standards Authority have to tighten up controls of this.

We would like to see a ban on misleading adverts entirely. This

is where the review falls down, while it is brilliant to see it,

there is a significant inconsistency in the report which

could mean that it falls far short of making any kind of inroads, we

could end up if these recommendations are implemented

where non-invasive procedures, the advertising of them is more heavily

regulated than invasive procedures. Because the recommendation is that

non-invasive ones, such as injections that they are treated as

prescription-only medicine which means they can't be advertised.

have been portraying women as victims of a particular sort of

representation. There is an argument that says we have become a

more narcissistic society? All of us? OK, but in the case of, that's

an abstract debate that you can have. Let's be clear what we are

talking about, we are talking about an industry that makes millions

every year and at the heart of that has been a relentless, aggressive,

marketing campaign which actively works to persuade women to undergo

medically unnecessary invasive surgery. I would like to see the

Government take this report and make sure it is consistent so that

we end the advertising of invasive cosmetic surgery. We certainly want

to put far more controls, particularly on the consent

procedure. We have to stop people going for cosmetic surgery and

having it sold to them like it is double glazing. That really has to

stop. One of the things we have recommended is a two-stage consent

process with a cooling off prd. And your consent -- period. And the

consent is done bit surgeon doing your surgery. We can't have a

situation where a person going to a clinic and seen by a sales person,

told they could have a proceed du, then the doctor flies in, does the

operation and flies out again. That has to stop. The same doctor after

the procedure. Very often I have had cosmetic surgery and not seen

the same doctor afterLuiz Eduardo. What do you hope will come out of

it? I hope they tighten the regulations and you have a

consultation and you have a certain amount of cooling off period of

time. I do hope that the advertising cools down. It is

ridiculous to say that we should stop retouching magazines and it is

all the problem is media and everything else. That's ridiculous,

what are you going to do, put ugly people on TV. Where did you get an

idea of what you should look like? I think that's, there is loads of

different reasons isn't there. There is upbringing, there is

schools, you can see a beautiful girl in the Post Office and aspire

to be her, it is ridiculous to blame it on the media. The thing is

let's put the rules in place, let's tighten it up and that would

certainly help. Make it safe. you all very much. That's all we

Hello, on Thursday a typical spring day across the northern part of the

UK. With lots of sunshine and some showers, April showers, heavy one,

with hail and thunder in places too. Let's look at the scene across the

north. As we go through Thursday afternoon, here it is, some

sunshine here, one or two heavy showers. Across Scotland it will be

noticable if you catch them. Temperatures 10 in Aberdeen, nine

in Edinburgh. An increasing breeze as well. Northern England,

different story here, nor layered cloud, bits and pieces of rain, the

real warmth will be across East Anglia and the south-east. This is

the last day with recent temperatures across the south

eet,up to 23 degrees in some places. We get into Wales, lots of cloud

and a bit of rain too. Western fringes of Wales will get a little

brightness towards the second half of the afternoon. This is the

outlooks a we head towards the end of the week. Temperatures in the

north with single figures with hail and thunder in places. A dip in the

temperature for southern part of the UK. London will feel a big